‘The
Hussars’ - Brassey’s Book of Uniforms by Tim Newark
Excerpt/ Chapter Six: “Balkan Bandits” pgs 34-39
Elsewhere in Europe in the 18th century, a similar process of absorbing the wilder
elements encountered in frontier warfare was enacted and by doing so added a new
dimension to the meaning of uniforms. In central Europe, since the 15th century, a long
period of almost continuous warfare had ebbed and flowed where the German and
Slavic states bordered the Turkish Ottoman Empire.
Occasionally, there might be a major campaign or battle, but for the most of the time the
frontier was plagued by low-intensity warfare of an awful kind in which raid and
counter-raid followed each other endlessly, ethnic and religious hatred provoked
merciless atrocities, and young men saw their only future employment as armed
brigands, looting and ravaging neighboring lands.
When a major campaign did occur, these freelance border warriors were easily
recruited into either side where, because of their native fixation on loot and easy prey,
they could not be depended on to serve as disciplined, regular cavalry, but were instead
expected to carry on their livelihood as mounted bandits, ranging across enemy
territory, burning villages and crops, terrorizing civilians, and, occasionally, gathering
information. In the 16th century, Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, a German ambassador
at Constantinople, was warned of these marauders on his way through the Balkans and
preferred to travel by river.
Even Suleyman the Magnificent, the Turkish Sultan, complained about them: ‘What has
been the good of having made peace here, if they are going to disturb it and continue to
fight?’ The problem was that these warriors knew no other way of life. Busbecq calls
them Heydons. In Hungary, they were called Hussars.
The costume worn by these light irregular cavalry was highly distinctive and set a style
adopted by all later Hussar regiments throughout Europe over the next four centuries.
In the 16th century, the basic elements consisting of a loose tunic buttoned with
horizontal lines of frogging (ornamental loops of braid or cord), a stocking cap with a fur
band, a fur cloak, a sash or belt, breeches and brightly colored boots. Feathers could be
an additional decoration to the animal furs, indicating the dual origin of these horsemen
as hunters as well as bandits. They fought with curved sabers, bows and arrows, and
firearms. This outfit was similar to that worn by other Eurasian warrior peoples whose
livelihood depended on raiding and one can follow this
style of dress and life from the Balkans across the Black
Sea to the Caucasus and Central Asia where the Cossacks
and Tatars operated.
Border frontier Dragoon by V. Vuksic
The characteristic tunic frogging worn by all these warrior
peoples can be seen on Ottoman Turkish kaftans of the
15th and 16th centuries and this is likely to be the ultimate
origin of the style.
The similarity of Hussars and Cossacks to the outsider
is best indicated by the impressions of a British officer
stationed in the Netherlands in 1813: ‘They [Russian Cossacks] never sleep in a house,
and I saw some at the Hague encamped in a stable yard. Both friends and enemies
dislike them, for they take whatever they choose. They swear that on their entry into
France they will destroy man, woman and child, and that they will first pillage Paris
and then burn it…There are some Bosnian Cossacks, who use bows and arrows, and
are quite naked.’ Not only is this a pretty typical description of these primitive raiders,
but also the ‘Bosnian Cossack’ is in fact, a Hussar in the old sense of the word, for the
Serbian word for bandit is husar or gusar, the root of the Hungarian huszar.
The process by which these freelance marauders became absorbed into a regular army
is similar to that enacted by the English over the Scots Highlanders at the beginning of
the 18th century. For a hundred years previously, Hungarian Hussars had fought with
the Austrian Hapsburg army as marauding auxiliaries against the Ottoman Turks.
Towards the end of the 17th century, the seemingly unstoppable Turkish army had
suffered several key reverses. In 1683, a Polish led alliance defeated them outside
Vienna. In the years following this, the Austrian Hapsburgs piled pressure on the Turks
with several campaigns into the Hungarian territory of their empire until they achieved
the complete conquest of Hungary and Croatia in 1699 and pushed on into the Balkans
where they captured Belgrade in 1718. Having vastly increased the size of their
dominions, the Austrians set about consolidating these gains in a similar manner to that
of Britain’s absorption of Scotland. An element of this union included the formal
appearance of Hungarian Hussars in the Austrian army, not as auxiliary wild men, but
as uniformed, disciplined members of a regular army. Like the Scots Highlanders, the
Hussars were allowed to keep elements of their distinctive national costume and this
became the basis of the ‘classic’ Hussar uniform.
By the time of the Seven Years War in1740, the Austrians had raised several Hussar
regiments and they wore the following basic items: a fur hat (or busby) with a colored
cloth bag hanging from it (derived from the earlier fur trimmed stocking hat); a short
fur trimmed coat or pelisse (derived perhaps
from the fur lined cloak), often worn like a cape
draped over one shoulder; a short jacket or
dolman secured with ornamental frogging; tight
colored breeches and Hungarian boots; a sash of
colored cords around the waist; an ornamented
case or sabertache worn from the waist ; a
decorated saddlecloth or shabraques. The colors
of all these varied according to regiment, but
could be very bright: Hussars of the Regiment
P.A. Esterhazy wore light blue dolmans with
yellow cuffs, red breeches, and yellow boots.
They fought with their native saber and carbines
(short cavalry muskets). Very quickly they
became the most colorful cavalry employed on
European battlefields.
Croatian or Hungarian Hussar Illustration
by V. Vuksic
Many Western European commanders had served with the Austrians in their
campaigns against the Turks and as they returned to their own countries they not only
brought attractive reports of these exotic-looking figures, but raised their own units
modeled after them. The French quickly followed the first regular Austrian regiment
raised in 1688, with a regiment of their own in 1692. By the middle of the 18th century,
there were seven Hussar regiments in French pay, three of Hungarian origin, four
recruited from Germans and Liegois. Even their own French light cavalry, called
Chasseurs à cheval, were overwhelmed by the Hussar fashion and demanded a similar
Hungarian-style uniform. The rakish character of these horsemen, conveying an appeal
of illicit, dangerous sex, similar to that surrounding the gypsies or pirates, extended
even to their hairstyles. French Hussars wore moustaches, a pigtail, and two cadenettes
or pleated lengths of hair hanging down each cheek – these being encouraged to hang
straight with the aid of hollowed pistol bullets knotted to them. Napoleon later brought
an end to this exoticism by ordering Hussars to have their hair cut, although even he
could not get them to remove their waxed moustaches. Hussars, however, were not the
first East European warriors to serve France as mercenaries. Albanian Stradiots and
Croatians, all raiding horsemen, had been hired by French armies in the 16th and 17th
centuries, the Croats apparently being renowned for wearing scarves around their necks
as this is the origin of the word cravat.
The Hussar fashion spread northwards. Several German states raised their own
Hussar regiments and during the Seven Years War, Prussian Hussars fought against
Austrian Hussars, the similarity of their uniforms leading to many mistakes, including
one incident when an Austrian Hussar trumpeter managed to rally a group of Prussian
Hussars around him. The similarity to pirates was enhanced when the Prussian Leib
Hussars adopted a skull and crossbones insignia, or Death’s Head, on their hats. Russia
added a number of Hungarian-style Hussars to its own army in the Seven Years War,
mainly recruited from the Balkans. Being regular troops, these cavalry were paid, but
they fought alongside groups of Cossacks representing the earlier tradition of raiders
dependent on loot and ravaging the enemy to supplement their income Most of these
came from the eastern provinces of the Russian empire, their appearance being more
primitive and far less regulated than the Russian Hussars, some even fighting with bows
and arrows. It would only be in the 19th century that Russia would finally clothe all its
Cossack warriors in a uniform.
Britain largely managed to resist the fashion for Hussar costume throughout the 18th
century, despite the presence of the Duke of Cumberland’s Hussars at Culloden, and
even though regular units of light cavalry or dragoons, dressed similarly to footsoldiers,
were informally termed Hussars. During the war against Napoleon, the British
employed German Hussars to great effect and, finally, in 1807, four regiments of Light
Dragoons were converted to Hussars, wearing the full Hungarian-style uniform. Some
British publications criticized the overly decorated uniforms, The Statesman describing
it as ‘a mere gee-gaw…subject by its intrinsic frivolity, to public ridicule’. Proving
popular with its wearers, however, Hussar regiments remained in the British Army,
winning sterling reputations throughout the 19th century, most notable during the
Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava. By 1922, there were 12 regiments of Hussars,
and today there are two remaining such regiments, The King’s Royal Hussars and the
Queen’s Royal Hussars (The Queen’s Own and Royal Irish).
A similar Hussar uniform was adopted by the Royal Horse Artillery and this endures
today, so that one can see the spectacle of the Queen being saluted on her birthday by
guns fired by members of the Royal Artillery wearing the uniforms of the Hungarian
bandits. The Hussar fashion even crossed the Atlantic to North America where French
recruited Hussars of Lauzun’s Legion fought in the American War of Independence and
a century later Northern volunteers raised their
own Hussar units during the American Civil
War (the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment)
The most exotic of all cavalry uniforms was that
worn by the Polish Winged Hussars. This
painting by Ron Poulter shows three versions of
the wing being worn by Polish soldiers. The
reconstruction at the top shows a Polish Hussar
of 1635 wearing the first version of the wing
attached to his saddle. The reconstruction at the
bottom left is based on a portrait of Colonel
Szczodrowski entering Paris in 1645 with an
ostrich feather wing mounted on his saddle--his
clothes show a strong Turkish influence. The
reconstruction at the bottom right shows the
final form of a Polish Hussar in the late 17 th-early
18th century, wearing two wings attached to the
back of his armor.
The most spectacular Hussar uniform ever
worn must be that belonging to the Polish
Winged Hussars of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Curiously, the term Hussar seems to be misplaced when describing these warriors, as
they are essentially armored lancers, akin in social status and military performance to
the French Gens d’ Armes, gentlemen at arms, but their chosen form of dress owes
much to the culture of the border bandit warriors of the Balkans and the Eurasian
steppes. In addition to the Turkish-style kaftan and tight breeches, the Polish Hussars
wore mail or plate armor, a plumed helmet, a cloak or saddlecloth of leopard or panther
skin, and one or two giant wooden wings with ostrich or eagle feathers attached to them.
In the 16th century, these ‘wings’ were attached to their saddle, but in the 17th century
they were fixed to the back of their armor and gave them perhaps, the most elaborate
appearance of any warriors at any time.
The origin of the wearing of these wings seems to point back to the feathers worn by
hunter-bandits in the Balkans, especially those known as Delis who fought as scouts
and raiders for both sides in the wars against Ottoman Turkey, and adorned their
helmets, shields, and clothes with the feathers of birds they had killed. Going back
further in time, the Huns awarded feathers to their finest archers, two feathers worn in a
helmet being the sign of skill at shooting both backwards as well as forwards. The
practical purpose of wearing these wings has been investigated and although several
theories have been put forward, one being that they made a frightful noise when
‘Deli’ illustration
By V. Vuksic
charging into battle, it seems most likely that they were worn out of
sheer extravagance and simply added to an awe-inspiring
appearance, like a bearskin cap, which has its own psychological
impact on the battlefield. Bernard Connor, an Irishman in Poland
in the employ of Polish King, Jan III Sobieski, in the 17th century,
described the appearance of the Hussars as frightful: ‘being stuck
all over with wings of Storks, Cranes, Turkey-cocks and cloatted
over their Armor with the skins of Leopards, Tygers, Bears, Lions,
etc., all of which they do to make themselves more terrible to the
enemy.’ This was very much the final development in the most
exotic of cavalry types.
Transcribed by Rik (Sulima~Suligowski) Fox ROP, ROJ,
KCStS